After walking over to it, I saw three buttons on the holographic display of the vending machine.
> Weapons
> Armor
> Other
I went through the first two tabs. As told by Crayne, there was little to no useful weapons or armor for sale. For the most part, just “white” stuff. Switching to the Other tab, I examined it to find cartridges for all kinds of weapons and various consumables, such as stimulators, i.e. items used for restoring health points, or vigors, items used for restoring mana points.
There were two types of stimulators. The first caused health points to regain over time and the second got it restored instantly. Sure enough, the price of the latter was much higher. Nevertheless, I was willing to buy one of those to test it out.
> Name: Stimulator
> Level: 1
> Restoring health: +50
> Price: 1000
> (Do you want to buy the item: Yes/No)
After I pressed the “Yes” button, a small cylindrical objected materialized right out of the air on a platform protruding from one side of the vending machine. Picking the stimulator up, I gave it a once-over. There was a diminutive needle sticking out of one end of the object. The second end had a small button on it. The word “Full” was along the body of the stimulator. It was a no-brainer to figure out how it worked. I bought two more stimulators and went on examining the Other tab.
All cartridges were divided into two categories, standard and special. The first ones were cheap. There was nothing special about them. In terms of the second type, they had statistics of their own. Depending on a type of the special cartridges, they boosted various qualities of the player’s weapon.
I had an abundance of standard cartridges due to my having gathered them up while on my wandering around the deserted streets. Yet I had none of the special cartridges. After examining items for sale a little longer, I decided to acquire a few magazines with armor-piercing bullets stored within them. Might as well test armor-piercing bullets out to get the feel of them and compare them with the standard ones.
> Name: Pistol bullets
> Type: Armor-piercing
> Level: 1
> Damage: +25
> Bullet velocity: -100
> Special quality: +50 damage on armored targets
I decided not to spend too much money for the time being for fear of encountering PKs. If I squandered all my money on consumables and ammo and then got iced once again, I not only would have no money at all but also lose everything I’d just acquired. It’d be a shame. So I’d better not to run through all of my money. At least for the time being. I had to teach myself to play without dying at the hands of PKs every ten minutes. Besides, if I got killed again, the money I had on me would really come in handy. Instead of delving into trash cans for ragged clothes and cartridges, I would head for a vending machine.
Having arrived at that decision, I left the vending machine alone and split the building. Looking around, I chose a random direction and started off. After some time, muffled sounds of gunfight reached my ears. Looked like the other players started to enter the game.
Weak monsters engaged me every now and then. It was fiends, spider scouts, and various overgrown mutant insects. The experience bar was gradually filling, although it did so not as fast as I’d like it to.
Soon a message popped in my HUD.
> Congrats! You have just leveled up to 4! You have got 5 unused skill points!
I wasn’t all that keen on lingering around in the street to become a sitting duck for a possible sniper while assigning the points to skills. So I walked into the nearest house and commenced examining the warlock’s skill tree. First off, I allocated two points to the Acceleration skill to upgrade it to the full.
> Name of the psi-power: Acceleration
> Description: Your movement speed, as well as your reloading speed, gets increased for a limited amount of time. Moreover, while the psi-power is active you take less damage.
> The stats of the Acceleration psi-power:
> Level: 3 out of 3
> Your movement speed gets increased by: 100 percent
> Your reloading speed gets increased by: 100 percent
> The receiving damage gets decreased by: 50 percent
> The duration is: 30 seconds
> Mana consumption: 125 points
I then unlocked another skill and immediately upgraded it.
> Name of the psi-power: Biokinesis
> Description: When the Biokinesis psi-power is active, your wounds quickly heal over restoring health points by accelerated consumption of mana points. While the Biokinesis is active, no psi-power could be employed.
> The stats of the Biokinesis psi-power:
> Level: 3 out of 3
> HP generates to the point of 100 percent
> The speed of HP regeneration is 5 points per second
> Mana consumption is 3 points per second
All five points were assigned. I then examined the first five levels of the Warlock’s skill tree. Each level had three psi-powers in it.
> Level 1: “Surge” –– “Shield” –– “Disarming”
> Level 2: “Blow” –– “Acceleration” –– “Flare”
> Level 3: “Telekinesis” –– “Biokinesis” –– “Vortex Trap”
> Level 4: “Harm” –– “Stasis” –– “Jammer”
> Level 5: “Darkness” –– “Teleportation” –– “Twins”
I had already learned and maximally upgraded the “Surge”, “Shield”, “Blow”, “Acceleration”, and “Biokinesis” psi-powers. After I reached level 5, I would probably unlock the “Vortex Trap” psi-power. Judging from its description, it was quite a useful skill. After upgrading it, I would probably unlock the Stasis psi-power. This skill was used to create a small area. Every player or mob within the area got frozen, completely immobilized for some time.
After that, I might unlock the Teleportation skill, that allowed the player to instantly transfer themselves from one point to another, covering quite long distances without wandering the physical space between the two of them. Yet before I could unlock the Teleportation, I’d have to learn and upgrade another skill on the previous, fourth, level in order to get skills on the fifth level available. That is, I’d have to choose between the Harm or Jammer. I didn’t know which one I’d decide on yet.
As for the Flare and Disarming, I wasn’t sure if they might be worth unlocking. In fact, these psi-powers seemed to be pretty lame to me.
The Flare psi-power is used to create a small glowing object tagging along with the player and illuminating their surroundings. In other words, it was a would-be flashlight. If one were to upgrade the Flare, one would be able to pitch the glowing object at another player to get them temporarily dazzled. So the Flare was a flashlight, which could be turned into something along the lines of a flash-bang grenade.
And the Disarming psi-power was obviously used to disarm another player. Once the warlock utilized the Disarming, dark energy yanked another player’s weapon away from their hands and hurled it aside.
I doubted the usefulness of these two psi-powers. The skills situated on the higher levels of the skill tree, such as the Teleportation or Stasis, seemed more attractive to me.
Out of the blue, a harsh loud scream came from the street, bringing me back to the moment. It was mantis shrieking. Yet it wasn’t looking for me. I sneaked over to a window facing the street and gingerly looked out. The high-pitched yells still ripped through the air. The winged monster itself was nowhere to be seen though.
A powerful machine gun roared to life somewhere. Mantis screamed again, in pain this time. Loud resonant explosions banged at regular 10-second intervals. It might be either mantis hurling fireballs or some player discharging a grenade launcher at the mob.
The heavy rapid-firing machine gun cut loose with another long salvo. The mantis let out with
another scream tinged with pain. After that, silence fell. The battle was over. No more gunfire. No more shrills. There was no telling who had lived through the fight. I decided to lie low for a while. No matter who was the winner, I’d better not to encounter either. The level 15 mantis was too strong for me to defeat it. But if it was the player who had won the battle, I best not encounter such a tough player either. So I stayed inside the building.
No sound came from the street for a couple of minutes. I carefully peeked out the window once in a while. Then an engine roared to life somewhere nearby. From the rambling of the engine rapidly fading away, the car obviously receded. After it was all quiet again, I finally walked out of the building.
Looked around. Nothing suspicious caught my eye. I chose a direction and set off glancing back over my shoulder from time to time.
I soon chanced on a computer terminal on my walk. Design-wise, it was almost identical to the vending machine I’d recently used to buy the stimulators and handgun ammo.
After I neared the computer terminal, a holographic display popped up. Three lines were brought up on it.
> Available quests:
> 1. Delivery quest
> (Show: Yes/No)
I tapped the “Yes” button and the page refreshed.
> Available quests:
> 1. Delivery quest
> Goal: Deliver a package to Outlaw’s Lair in 30 minutes.
> Reward:
> 1. Experience points: +300
> 2. Money: +1500
> (Do you want to accept the quest: Yes/No)
I accepted the quest. A metal box materialized on the ground in front of the computer terminal. The info on the monitor vanished to be replaced by a new line.
> No quest is available at the moment!
A message popped up in the log.
> The delivery quest has just begun! Remaining time: 29:59
The countdown kicked in. So where do I have to carry the package over to? I looked at the crystal to consult the map. A golden star caught my eye instantly. It was located on the part of the map that was still covered with mist, which meant I hadn’t been there yet. I let my gaze sweep across the map to find the green triangle representing my character. It was far too away from the golden star. The star was at the farthest end of the city. I wonder if I’d be able to bring the package over there before the time was up.
I walked over to the package on the ground. Looked it over. Two handles were on either side of the package. Leaning over, I took hold of the two handles and tried to lift it off the ground. I was actually able to accomplish it. However, the package turned out to be awfully heavy, way heavier than I’d expected.
I struggled to bring it up to the chest level. This done, I toiled down the street, my legs already worn-out. The Fatigue attribute decreased rapidly. Once it shrank to zero, I felt completely exhausted. My hands could no longer hold the package. It slumped to the ground.
It was painfully obvious that without a vehicle I would never be able to deliver the package over to another end of the city in time. So I decided to let it go. There was nothing I could do about it.
I left the package on the ground where it’d fallen and walked away. When reached the intersection, I looked this way, then that, chose a random direction, and move on. After a couple of minutes, a new message appeared in the log.
> Take note, your package has been intercepted!
Although it was me who’d accepted the quest, it seemed that everyone could finish the quest. I looked at the map once more. A new symbol was now marked on it, a small white square. It quickly advanced on the golden star. The player who’d taken the package was probably riding in a car.
I praised myself for having ditched the package, for it seemed like once one player accepted a delivery quest, all the other players got a notification about it and they could see a blip on the map, indicating the package’s whereabouts. After that, the hunt for the package began. I would’ve surely been murdered had I not gotten rid of the package.
If I’d still had my buggy, then the hunt for the package would’ve turned into a helluva car chase. Participating in such an event would’ve been extremely dangerous. Yet it would’ve had to be a terrific fun anyway. This made me wonder when I would acquire a new vehicle.
Sure enough, if one had a car, they had to maintain it, constantly keeping it in proper condition and filling up its gas tank when necessary. On the other hand, owning a car, one could avoid some obstacles along the way. Say, if PKs suddenly showed up and assaulted you, you could hop behind the steering wheel and take off.
Moreover, if I’d had a car, it wouldn’t have been much of a problem to get through the previous night. I only would’ve had to tool around and run over mutants. That brought me to reflect on something. An idea that just crossed my mind was pretty good so I decided to think it out.
After half an hour or so passed, a message popped up in the log.
> Your package’s been delivered by another player! They has gotten the reward.
I wasn’t upset by the message the slightest bit. I had to take some time and think out the idea, which had occurred to me earlier on. If it was actually possible for me to carry my scheme out, then it’d be way easier for me to ward off all those nasty monsters swarming the city at night. Still, to do that I surely had to gather up lots of various resources. Where could I get them all?
All of a sudden, a vile high-pitched scream sounded overhead. Something huge cast its huge shadow over me. There was no need for me to look up to know I was being hunted down by a mantis!
Switching on the Acceleration, I burst into a race. Fortunately for me, the winged creature failed to keep pace with me. Little by little, I was putting more and more distance between us. That seemingly pissed the monster off and it began to spit out fireballs. One of them slammed against the blacktop nearby. The fiery wave would’ve covered me had I not turned on the Shield in time.
The Acceleration wore off. I could‘ve reactivated it, yet I didn’t want to waste mana if not necessarily needed. Besides, I was racing along a house, which stood two-story high. All its windows were boarded-up, but the entrance door was open. If I hid myself inside, the mantis might not be able to enter the building and might decide to leave me alone.
I barged into the building and quickly looked around. The room I found myself in contained no furniture whatsoever. At the far end of the room was a set of stairs leading up to the second floor. I decided it wasn’t such a good idea to get up there and raced across the room to huddle up in the far corner of the room instead, straining my ears to hear what was going on outside.
Furious ear-piercing screams and the sound of wings flapping came from the street. Thin shafts of light seeped into the room through the cracks between the boards. The mantis was swooping by the windows, its huge winged silhouette blocked the light out for a moment.
The creature made no attempt to enter the house through the open door. Maybe the mob was too big to fit. I wondered about the durability of the windows. What if mantis tried to break through them? Would the mob able to squeeze through a window? Probably not, seeing as how windows were smaller than the entrance door was.
Contrary to my expectation, the mod wasn’t all that keen on leaving me be. The mob was so near and yet so far to get its quarry. Perhaps, it made the mob ticked off. I felt anxious. Time to conceive a backup plan in case the terrifying monster got inside.
Looked around once more. Checked all the rooms. A back door was nowhere to be found. I decided that if the mantis got in here, I’d employ the Acceleration and split the building as fast as possible.
New vague sounds came from the street. At first, it was just an incomprehensible din. It was getting louder and closer and soon I realized it was a vehicle approaching the building. It wasn’t long before the rattle of an engine was so loud it nearly drowned out the mantis’ infuriated screams. Due to the boarded-up windows, I couldn’t see the vehicle, yet
I was certain that the car had pulled up in front of the building.
Then a heavy machine gun roared to life. The mantis let out with a shrill cry. It was in pain, for sure. Seemed like I ran into the player who had been slaying mantises in front of me some time before. The last time I’d come across the player, they’d had no way of knowing someone had been nearby. This time I’d also best not come into sight. When he or she dealt with the winged creature and drove away, I’d come out of the building.
The battle didn’t last long. The player surely had a lot of experience in killing mantises. I loitered on in the corner quietly. No more sounds came from the street. The player was in no hurry to drive away. They probably were in the process of gathering the loot dropped from the mantis. Those level 15 mobs had to drop pretty valuable items.
All of a sudden, the machine gun rattled to life once again. Whom was the player firing at? It wasn’t long before I found out the answer. Heavy rounds broke apart the boards of one window. At first, I supposed the player had just accidentally gotten off a burst on the window. They might’ve noticed another mob nearby and started to discharge the weapon before swiveling the machine gun to have their foe lined up in iron sights, which was why some stray bullets demolished the window.
Still, almost immediately my theory was refuted. Rounds kept zipping through the broken window to smash into the far wall, cratering and splintering it. The player was firing at exactly what he was aiming at. There was no doubt about it now. But how had he or she learned that somehow was in the building?
Glitch Boxset Page 14
